The fictional small English country town of Roxton boasts two doctors. This tale focuses on the struggles of their wives: Katherine and the 'good' Dr. James Murchison and Betty and the 'bad' Dr. Parker Steele. But, of course, no one is all good or all bad and there are hurdles to overcome, in this case in the form of alcoholism. The cost of the war between the two women is greater than either woman imagined. Deeping draws on his experiences as the son of a doctor in portraying some of the less pleasant facts of physiological reality, maybe more than in many other fictional works in this engrossing and heart-wrenching tale.